After losing for the first time last Sunday night in Indianapolis, the Broncos were at home this week to face off with a Redskins team that was coming off a much needed win against the Bears. In what was expected to be a shootout, both teams had very pedestrian first halves on offense, only mustering up seven points each. It was the Redskins that would start to pull away in this game, as it seemed early in the third quarter that Washington might upset the reeling Broncos. Might is the keyword here.

The switch flipped for the Broncos midway through the third quarter, and they reasserted themselves as the premiere offense in football. The Broncos converted two huge fourth downs in the second half, and compiled too much momentum for RGIII and the Redskins to rebound from in the game. Once the ball got rolling, there was no stopping Denver as they turned a 21-7 deficit into 45-21 victory.

The Broncos consistently punished Griffin in this game, sacking him three times and hitting him with regularity. The biggest sack of the game was Von Miller’s first of the season, which caused Griffin to lose a fumble and set up a scoring drive for Denver.

Peyton Manning threw for 354 yards and 4 TD on the day, but uncharacteristically threw three interceptions. Of all the weapons Manning has to throw to on the outside, it was actually running back Knowshon Moreno who led the team with 89 yards receiving. Moreno had 120 all-purpose yards, and proved once again just how important he is to this offense.

The Denver pass defense stepped up in this game, and recorded a season high four interceptions. The defense needs to build off of the momentum they built in this game, and continue to pressure the quarterback and get takeaways in the secondary. Teams have had a hard enough time keeping up with Denver as it is, and if their defense ramps things up, keeping up in these shootouts will become an even taller task than it already is.

The Peyton-Manning-induced beatdown spoiled Coach Mike Shanahan's return to Denver, where he ran the show for 14 years and led the Broncos to two Super Bowl titles in the 1990s.

The Broncos improve to 7-1 heading into their bye week and stayed within one game of the undefeated Chiefs who took care of business at home against the Browns. The Broncos will play the Chiefs twice in a three-week span in November.

The Redskins fall to 2-5 with the loss on a day when they had a chance to make up ground in the trepid NFC East after both Dallas and Philadelphia suffered defeats earlier in the day.